Wales Rally GB failed to get into its potentially impressive stride yet again when extreme conditions continued to affect the penultimate day of the world rally championship's final round. Part of the British event's enduring challenge has been the difficult conditions associated with this time of year, but the vicious cold that descended on the Welsh forests prevented crews from driving on the limit.

The first two days of the planned total of 216 miles against the clock became a lottery thanks to frequent patches of ice waiting to trap even the best rally drivers in the world. Jari-Matti Latvala almost lost the lead yesterday when he left the road briefly in the Halfway stage and allowed Sébastien Loeb to close to within three seconds of the Ford driver. Latvala was not upset in the least by the heart-stopping incident and extended his lead over the world champion's Citroën to almost 11 seconds through Crychan, the final stage before competitors moved south to Cardiff.

While the half-mile stage in the Millennium Stadium was nothing more than a commendable means of introducing the sport to members of the public unfamiliar with rallying, the drivers at least knew that the surface would be predictable, unlike the previous 110 miles spread across the forests of mid Wales. Mud and gravel roads that quickly become rutted in the wet conditions were the expected challenge, but the traditional hazard of Rally GB was lost beneath layers of ice.

That would not have been a problem had a change to the rules - introduced this year by the sport's governing body, the FIA, as a means of cutting costs - not designated a control tyre that would have been suitable for gravel but turned out to be as useless as attempting to play ice hockey in stocking feet. The more suitable snow or studded tyres were not allowed, and neither were the so-called gravel crews who, previously, would have travelled each stage an hour before the start and reported the exact location of snow and ice.

Loeb had warned of the impending problem after overturning his road car at 10 mph when he lost control on a forest road during the reconnaissance on Tuesday. The rally organisers' hands were tied. They were forced to cancel many miles of Friday's stages in the interests of safety for drivers and spectators alike. Loeb's predictions were to prove embarrassingly accurate as the drivers struggled for grip on the forest roads that remained in use.

'For some time now, after the introduction of the control tyre, we have said that there should be an emergency tyre available in the event of extreme conditions,' said David Richards, boss of the Subaru team and former world champion co-driver. 'When the conditions were like they were on Friday, it should be at the discretion of the clerk of the course to use them. We should not find ourselves in a situation where we are not able to deliver to spectators, who had an even more frustrating day than us.

'How can we turn round to the general public and say it was too slippery for the best drivers in the world to perform? It makes a mockery of the whole sport. We've repeatedly spoken to the FIA about this and we've been told it's too complicated to sort out. We don't accept this.'

The head of the Citroën team, Olivier Quesnel, was even more direct when he described Friday's events as 'a mess and stupid'. He went on: 'This is supposed to be a show and we need spectators, but we cannot put on a good show without good tyres. Obviously, there is also the aspect of safety, but what we have been doing is not nice.'

The presence of gravel crews would have at least provided some warning of the most treacherous parts, but the use of these teams of professional drivers was also banned to save money. 'That just does not make sense,' said one leading driver. 'If you crash heavily in a WRC (World Rally Championship) car because you have no grip on ice with these tyres, you could write off £300,000 of car. Have that happen to two cars and your costs are way beyond what it needs to run a gravel crew. It's typical of the confused thinking that goes into making these rules.'

It was doubly unfortunate for Wales Rally GB that this should happen on the first day as the organisers attempted to answer criticism about using the same stages in south Wales by extending the rally route farther north.

'The stages for Friday were new to me and they looked very fast and challenging,' said Loeb. 'But we could do nothing on them but just try and get through without sliding off. It was a big shame for everyone.'